Courts - Newport News/hampton/york

June 23, 1989

NEWPORT NEWS

One New Yorker was found not guilty and charges against two others were dropped in a case that Newport News police said had stopped a major source of heroin in the city.

A Newport News Circuit judge found Inez Magwood innocent last week of possessing heroin with the intent to distribute it. Prosecutors dropped an identical charge against Russell Houston, 27, on Monday and one against Moleek Brown, 30, last month.

Commonwealth's Attorney Willard M. Robinson Jr. said the charges were dropped because authorities had insufficient evidence to link the suspects to the drug found during a raid of their motel rooms Feb. 13. Police alleged that the drug had come from New York City.

HAMPTON

Ivan Collins, 37, was convicted in Hampton Circuit Court June 16 of arson and threatening to burn a rooming house in the Phoebus area Feb. 4.

Collins was arrested April 4 after fire investigators acted on a complaint by the house's landlady, who said Collins had threatened to set fire to the house at 38 W. County St.

He will be sentenced July 24. York

Victor D. Williams, 20, of Invader Drive in the Bethel Manor area, was sentenced Thursday in York County Circuit Court to five years in prison for the statutory rape of a 12-year-old girl Sept. 25. He was convicted March 30.